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Corona mutations: Iceland is sequencing world champion

2021-01-19T19:07:32.677Z


In Germany, not even one percent of Sars-CoV-2 infections are examined for their genetic material. Little Iceland is a pioneer in genome analyzes of the virus - there it is 100 percent. How does the country do it?


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Laboratory in Reykjavik: a close eye on mutants of the pathogen

Photo: HALLDOR KOLBEINS / AFP

The possibly more infectious mutations from South Africa and Great Britain have revealed a deficit: In Germany, the activity of the virus with regard to genetic changes is not monitored enough.

For this, the laboratories would have to regularly sequence the positive corona samples.

But apparently there was a lack of appropriate technical equipment in this country, and in some cases the necessary funding.

In less than one percent of the samples, the complete genetic material has so far been deciphered.

After all, improvements should now be made.

The Federal Ministry of Health is working on a regulation, up to a tenth of the samples should run through the sequencing machines in the future.

The tracking of the genetic virus development in Iceland is going better.

The country has a better eye on the pathogen's mutants than any other in the world.

In the largely sparsely populated island state, every positive corona test has been analyzed in detail for ten months - especially in the Decode laboratory in Reykjavik.

"We need relatively little time for the actual sequencing," says laboratory manager Olafur Thor Magnusson.

About three hours were enough to determine the virus strain.

The entire process from isolating the DNA to sequencing can take up to a day and a half.

So far, scientists have identified 463 circulating variants in Iceland.

41 people carried the British mutant, but the South African mutant has not yet been detected.

All infections were discovered upon entry of those affected, where PCR tests are supposed to prevent virus mutants from being introduced.

According to Health Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir, the sequencing of the samples is the key to following the status and the development of the epidemic.

The information obtained in this way serves as a basis for the authorities to decide on specific measures to contain the pandemic.

The virus analyzes also help to understand the path of infection.

For example, it turned out that the second wave of infections in Iceland in mid-September was mainly due to a guest in a pub in central Reykjavik.

Bars and nightspots in the capital were then closed.

Sequencing is also carried out a lot in other countries such as Great Britain, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand, but nowhere in the world as extensively as in Iceland.

All of the around 6,000 corona cases reported in Iceland have been investigated.

The country owes this top position to the laboratory in the capital, which specializes in genome analyzes.

The company, founded in 1996, carried out the world's largest genetic study of a population to date: in order to identify cancer risk factors, it sequenced the entire genome of 2,500 Icelanders in 2015 and examined the genetic profile of a third of the then 330,000 inhabitants.

However, the project was controversial for data protection reasons.

Compared to this, sequencing coronavirus samples is straightforward.

"It is very easy to sequence the virus genome, there are only 30,000 nucleotides," says managing director Kari Stefansson.

The human genome, which is normally analyzed in his laboratories, is made up of 3.4 billion pairs of these DNA building blocks.

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joe / AFP

Source: spiegel

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